Abhanga 3105
Tukārām's mortality-warning. The body will go, will go; Time will eat it. Why do you not understand, you stone? — what (use are) elephants, horses, mansion? Mattress-cushion-fan — when old-age comes — they are shame. The bonds of body-relation — birds drown the fields. Even now, wake up — deceit is ahead. The verse permits the canonical mortality-shock-warning.
The verse
देह जाईंल जाईंल । यासी काळ बा खाईंल ॥१॥
कां रे नुमजसी दगडा । कैचे हत्ती घोडे वाडा ॥ध्रु.॥
लोडें बालिस्तें सुपती । जरा आलिया फजिती ॥२॥
शरीरसंबंधाचें नातें । भोरड्या बुडविती सेतातें ॥३॥
अझुनि तरी होई जागा । तुका म्हणे पुढें दगा ॥४॥
Literal translation
Deha jāīmla jāīmla — the deha will go, will go; yāsī kāḷa bā khāīmla — kāḷa will eat it. Kām re numajasī dagaḍā — why don't you understand, stone; kaiche hattī ghōḍe vāḍā — what (use are) elephants, horses, mansion. Lōḍe bālistē supatī — mattress, cushion, hand-fan; jarā āliyā phajitī — when jarā comes, (they are) phajitī. Śarīra-sambamdhāñce nāte — the bond of śarīra-sambandha; bhōraḍyā buḍavitī setāte — bhōraḍa (birds) drown the fields. Ajhuni tarī hōī jāgā — even now, wake up; Tukā mhaṇe puḍhe dagā — Tukā says: dagā ahead.
What it means
A 4-verse mortality-warning by Tukārām.
The argument: Deha-will-go, kāḷa-eats-it. Why-don't-you-realize, stone? What-elephants-horses-mansion? Mattress-cushion-fan become-shame in-old-age. Body-relations are-like bhōraḍa-birds-drowning-fields. Even-now, wake-up — dagā-(deceit)-ahead.
The bhōraḍa-drowns-fields image is striking — bhōraḍa-(a-type-of-bird) drowns-the-fields by-eating-the-seed; so do-body-relations-drown-the-bhakta's-field-of-life.
For someone today
Tukārām's mortality-warning. The body will go, will go; Time will eat it. Why do you not understand, you stone? — what (use are) elephants, horses, mansion? Mattress-cushion-fan — when old-age comes — they are shame. The bonds of body-relation — birds drown the fields. Even now, wake up — deceit is ahead. The verse permits the canonical mortality-shock-warning.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's mortality-warning
- Bhōraḍa-drowns-fields canonical-image
- Companion to 2884, 3075